The Moroccan children's rights NGO Matkich Waldi (Don't Touch My Child) has urged the mandatory presentation of vaccination records when enrolling or admitting any student in schools, whether public or private. This plea aims to address the growing number of measles infections in Morocco among young children. In a press release sent Wednesday to Yabiladi, the NGO stated that this measure would «ensure the health and safety of our children within educational institutions». In addition to making the presentation of vaccination records mandatory for school enrollment, Matkich Waldi urged the Ministry of National Education to strengthen coordination with the Ministry of Health and ensure proper monitoring of student vaccinations within schools. The NGO also called for «organizing regular school health campaigns to verify that children have received all necessary vaccinations and enforcing strict control measures to ensure compliance by educational institutions, including legal sanctions for non-compliance». How did Morocco tackle measles in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s ? It is worth noting that an unexpected surge in measles cases has been affecting Morocco over the past couple of years. Since September 2023, 25,000 measles cases have been recorded in the Kingdom, with 120 deaths attributed to the contagious disease, according to health officials. Children under 12 years old account for almost half of these deaths. Virologists attribute this measles outbreak in Morocco to vaccination issues. Since the Covid-19 health crisis, a global trend of increasing vaccine hesitancy has led to a decline in vaccination coverage rates in most regions and provinces of the Kingdom.
